Masks Chewed Chewing Gum

-

As more and more people switched to online grocery shopping during the lockdown, chewing gum sales took a hit and became an unexpected casualty of the pandemic. Generally, chewing gum’s sales are the result of the impulse buys when shoppers wait in the long checkout lines. Another segment that contributes to the majority of its sales is young smokers, who try to cover their breath after smoke with the mint. Now, most offices are closed, and so do the small nukkad shops, mint sales saw a significant drop.
At the surface, it looks like a problem for a definite period, i.e., till the lockdown gets over and we adjust to the new normal. But, there is more to it; minty-fresh breath forms a significant part of the social etiquette. Most of the mint brand’s communication revolves around the fresh breath, teeth whitening, and beautiful, confident smile with a focus not directed towards self but to the others (society). Now, most of the people are working from home, so even if they want confidence inside their house, they are likely to go for mouthwash then a mint. One can argue that slowly people have started going out with unlock 1.0; therefore, chewing gum sales should be able to recover. Well, though unlock 1.0 led to mobility, but what do you do when everyone wears masks, which will be part of our daily routine, covering our beautiful smile?
Brands picked these behavioral questions quickly and started to work towards modifying consumer behavior by emphasizing on self instead of society. One such campaign was launched by Hershey’s Ice Breakers, “mint before you mask” (as you know, mask breath is real).

What more do you think brands can do to keep up the mint consumption?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Law of The Category Leadership

-
Image
Pic Credit: Markus[pexels] We can think of the category leadership law as a subset of the Law of Leadership or the way around it. We all know it is highly impossible to keep up radical innovation at all times; there will be times when a new entrant or the existing player will come up with a new product line. So does it mean that if you cannot be the leader, then you have lost the chance to appropriate value out of the innovation? Well, not necessarily. There are several ways to secure your fortress, and one of the ways is to create a new category. How can you do that? It is always good to learn via example. Recently Marico has narrowed its focus towards the hygiene segment, which is a quite lucrative and relevant segment for any brand at this time. But apart from the supply chain challenges during these times, the biggest challenge for any new entrant is to break through the clutter as the hygiene segment already has a lot of well-established players and new local players. So to...
Read more

Twitter Got a Date

-
Image
Recently, Twitter and NASA had a late-night mushy talk, things which they talked about were third world problems Wi-Fi connection, rocketing, space, and earth. Here’s the screenshot of the conversation. I am sure that you will enjoy reading it. NASA has executed principles of the law of publicity by blending it with perfect digital strategy. In a very subtle manner, it ensured that the launch date of “NASA’s perseverance mars rover” gets registered in the minds of the public, and people will wait for the day to come and glued to their TV, mobile, tablet screens to witness the launch.
Read more

Law of Leadership

-
Image
Law of leadership advocates that it is essential to be first in the category than having the best product in the category. Keep in mind this does not mean that marketers can forego all the aspects of quality; the product’s basic quality conformance is a must. Law simply means that the brand being first in the category will be able to settle in the prospect’s mind quickly and firmly. Unlike the latter entrants, the leader will get undivided attention from the customer, which will help the brand to become a synonym for the category. Thus, it is highly recommended to create a name that can be used generically for the category. Airbnb is a perfect example of the law of leadership. It was first in the category of short-term property rental. Though other starts-up came into being to give competition to Airbnb, however, Airbnb’s revenue remained by far the highest outlasting most of its competitors. Is Airbnb’s dominance in the short term property rental due to a better product? Well, oth...
Read more